The women's suffrage movement in the U.S. state of Minnesota began the mid-1800s and culminated in the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment by the state's legislature in 1919. The amendment, which prevents states from denying women the right to vote, was officially adopted and added to the Constitution of the United States in 1920.
The earliest recorded educational work for woman suffrage in Minnesota was in 1847, several years before the Civil War period, when Harriet Bishop, a teacher in Saint Paul, addressed small gatherings of women in the privacy of their parlors. [1]
In 1858, a lecture on "The Rights of Women" was given in Champlin by Mary Jackman Colburn, who, nine years later, assisted by Sarah Burger Stearns of Rochester, secured the first hearing before a committee of the Minnesota Legislature. Their bill called for an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, permitting women to vote the forerunner of many bills of similar wording, that followed. Those early bills received few votes and much ridicule, all of which spurred these women to make greater efforts in securing petitions, resolutions, hearings, and in organizing clubs. The clubs at Champlin, Rochester, Minneapolis, and Kasson were the first to be organized, and when in 1881, a fifth club was formed at Duluth, sufficient interest was assured the organization of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association, in the same year. This state association, affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association, functioned steadily from 1881 to 1919 when the vote was won. Its first president was Sarah Burger Stearns, then of Duluth, and she was followed in two years by Dr. Martha Ripley, a pioneer woman physician of Minneapolis, a courageous figure, tremendously interested in the welfare of women and children. [1]
Julia Bullard Nelson of Red Wing served as president from 1890 to 1896. Nelson worked indefatigably to arouse both men and women by lecturing all over the state, securing resolutions from other organizations, getting signers to petitions, lobbying at sessions of the Legislature, and organizing clubs. The first bit of suffrage for women was secured in 1875 when the Legislature referred the question of school suffrage to the voters, and the amendment carried. Among those who were active in that campaign were Mrs. A. T. Anderson, Priscilla M. and Sanford Niles, Martha A. and C. W. Dorsett of Minneapolis, Mrs. Concheta F. Lutz of Redwood Falls, Mrs. T. F. Thurston of Albert Lea, and Mrs. Jessie Gray Cawley of Pipestone. [1]
Library suffrage was granted in 1885. Bills for municipal suffrage were occasionally introduced in state legislatures, but after 1900 constitutional amendment measures were adhered to, being introduced by friends of suffrage in nearly every session. Mrs. C. F. Lutz, St. Paul, and Mrs. Martha J. Thompson of Minneapolis each served two years as president of the state association, in the 1896-1900 period, when suffrage was still unpopular, though gaining friends steadily. About 1897 a group of Minneapolis woman physicians became identified with the local and state work, giving great impetus to the cause. The leaders were Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Dr. Ethel Edgerton Hurd, Dr. Annah Hurd, Dr. Bessie Parke Haines, and Dr. Margaret Koch. Dr. Eaton was largely instrumental in bringing the National Convention of 1901 to Minneapolis, and as Chairman of Arrangements, assisted by a group of workers, made that a memorable affair. The woman holding the longest record for active suffrage work was Dr. Ethel E. Hurd, who held many offices on state and local boards. [1]
In 1900, Maud Conkey Stockwell, 12th Ward Chairman of the Minneapolis Political Equality Club, was elected state president at the Stillwater Convention and served in that capacity for 10 years. Under her administration, regular press work was inaugurated, many educators were enlisted in the work, student clubs were formed, distinguished national speakers were taken before colleges, normal and high schools, legislative committees were appointed, brilliant hearings were arranged and many new clubs formed. A valuable worker in Kentucky, Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer, moved to Saint Paul in 1903, and undertook the press work, carrying it on for 12 years, and winning most of the editors of the state to a liberal stand on the suffrage question. [1]
Public opinion was influenced by the Scandinavian Suffrage Club, organized in 1907 with Mrs. Jenova Martin as president for several years, followed by Mrs. Luth Jaeger. Both of these workers served for a number of years on the state board. During this period, suffrage continued to be the butt of ridicule for the press, as well as for many men and women, but with the growth of the club movement and the idea of economic independence for women, suffrage sentiment made a steady, and by 1913, a rapid gain. Legislatures became more favorable at each session, until by 1917, both houses were ready to submit any bills requested by the state board. Miss Emily Dobbin of St. Paul was elected State President in 1911, serving one year. Then followed Mrs. Alice Ames Hall of St. Paul, Mrs. P. L. De Voist of Duluth, and Mrs. A. H: Bright of Minneapolis, each of whom served one year as president and helped materially in creating favorable sentiment throughout the state. [1]
Among independently organized clubs, were The 1915 Suffrage Club of Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Equal Suffrage Association, (which afterward affiliated with the Minnesota W.S.A.), The Equal Franchise League of St. Paul, and The Congressional Union. Several organizations like The Welfare League of St. Paul and the W. C. Ť. U., had active Franchise Departments, thereby aiding the state work in dislodging old ideas. There were also, many men friends of suffrage who supported the movement from the very beginning, and who were of invaluable assistance. The great suffrage parade in 1914 in Minneapolis, participated in by 2,000 women and men, was indicative of the popularity of the movement at that period. Clara Ueland of Minneapolis, was made State President in 1914, serving until the state's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919. [1]
This last period, in which hosts of new workers, as well as the old ones, participated, was marked by greater activities than any that preceded it. For the first time, headquarters rooms were rented and an office force was installed. State and national organizers were engaged and the state was organized by districts. Speakers were sent from Minnesota to help other states in their campaigns, and hundreds of dollars were contributed to the states that were hopeful of winning. The federal amendment was considered at the special session of the legislature, on September 8, 1919, and passed both the state house and senate with very few dissenting votes. [1]
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the United States and its states from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex, in effect recognizing the right of women to vote. The amendment was the culmination of a decades-long movement for women's suffrage in the United States, at both the state and national levels, and was part of the worldwide movement towards women's suffrage and part of the wider women's rights movement. The first women's suffrage amendment was introduced in Congress in 1878. However, a suffrage amendment did not pass the House of Representatives until May 21, 1919, which was quickly followed by the Senate, on June 4, 1919. It was then submitted to the states for ratification, achieving the requisite 36 ratifications to secure adoption, and thereby go into effect, on August 18, 1920. The Nineteenth Amendment's adoption was certified on August 26, 1920.
The National Woman's Party (NWP) was an American women's political organization formed in 1916 to fight for women's suffrage. After achieving this goal with the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the NWP advocated for other issues including the Equal Rights Amendment. The most prominent leader of the National Woman's Party was Alice Paul, and its most notable event was the 1917–1919 Silent Sentinels vigil outside the gates of the White House.
Women's suffrage, or the right to vote, was established in the United States over the course of more than half a century, first in various states and localities, sometimes on a limited basis, and then nationally in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Hannah Jensen Kempfer was a Norwegian-American schoolteacher, farmer, and politician. She was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1923 to 1930 and from 1933 to 1942, representing District 50 that covered Otter Tail County. Born on a ship in the North Sea, Kempfer was adopted by a Norwegian family that immigrated to the United States in 1885. Her family settled in Minnesota and squatted a piece of railroad land where she grew up in poverty. She became a teacher at a small rural schoolhouse. Kempfer was one of the four women first elected to the Minnesota legislature in 1922 after women's suffrage. As a legislator, she championed the rights of children and fought for the conservation of natural resources. She introduced legislation to protect the Showy Lady's slipper, Minnesota's state flower.
Clara Hampson Ueland was an American community activist and suffragist. She was the first president of the Minnesota League of Women Voters and worked to advance public welfare legislation.
The Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) operated from 1881 to 1920. The organization was part of the broader women's suffrage movement in the United States and it sought to secure the right of women to vote in Minnesota. Its members organized marches, wrote petitions and letters, gathered signatures, gave speeches, and published pamphlets and broadsheets to compel the Minnesota Legislature to pass legislation that recognized their right to vote. As a result of the movement's efforts, the legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1919, which prohibited the denial of citizens to vote based on sex.
This timeline highlights milestones in women's suffrage in the United States, particularly the right of women to vote in elections at federal and state levels.
Julia Bullard Nelson (1842–1914) was an American temperance and women's rights activist from Red Wing, Minnesota. Following the death of her husband and their only child, she bravely headed south to Texas, in 1869, to teach former slaves in U.S. government-backed Freedmen's Bureau schools. Nelson spent the summers of the 1870s and 1880s in Minnesota, where she emerged as a state and national leader in the movement for women's suffrage and the temperance campaign against alcohol use.
Women's suffrage was established in the United States on a full or partial basis by various towns, counties, states and territories during the latter decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century. As women received the right to vote in some places, they began running for public office and gaining positions as school board members, county clerks, state legislators, judges, and, in the case of Jeannette Rankin, as a member of Congress.
The Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial is a permanent feature on the grounds of the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul. It commemorates the women’s suffrage movement in the state and 25 women whose achievements were important to the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA). The memorial was designed by architects Ralph Nelson, Raveevarn Choksombatchai, and Martha McQuade.
The St. Louis Equal Suffrage League was formed in 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri with the aim of "bring[ing] together men and women who are willing to consider the question of Equal Suffrage and by earnest co-operation to secure its establishment."
Nellie F. Griswold Francis was an African-American suffragist, civic leader, and civil rights activist. Francis founded and led the Everywoman Suffrage Club, an African-American suffragist group that helped win women the right to vote in Minnesota. She initiated, drafted, and lobbied for the adoption of a state anti-lynching bill that was signed into law in 1921. When she and her lawyer husband, William T. Francis, bought a home in a white neighborhood, they were the targets of a Ku Klux Klan terror campaign. In 1927, she moved to Monrovia, Liberia, with her husband when he was appointed U.S. envoy to Liberia. He died there from yellow fever in 1929. Francis is one of 25 women honored for their roles in achieving the women's right to vote in the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol.
Sarah Burger Stearns was a social reformer and a leader in the woman's suffrage movement in the U.S. state of Minnesota. She co-founded the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association and served as its first president.
The West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association (WVESA) was an organization formed on November 29, 1895, at a conference in Grafton, West Virginia. This conference and the subsequent annual conventions were an integral part of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's Southern Committee's work to reach into previously under-represented areas for supporting the women's suffrage movement. The WVESA relied not only on the national association but also worked together with activists from the state's chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, state chapter of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and the clubs affiliated with the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs to win the right to vote. Though they lost in a landslide the 1916 referendum to amend the state's constitution for women's suffrage, the group provided the strong push for ratifying the federal amendment in spring 1920 that led to West Virginia becoming the thirty-fourth of the thirty-six states needed. That fall, West Virginia women voted for the first time ever, and the WVESA transformed itself into the League of Women Voters of West Virginia.
Women's suffrage began in Nevada began in the late 1860s. Lecturer and suffragist Laura de Force Gordon started giving women's suffrage speeches in the state starting in 1867. In 1869, Assemblyman Curtis J. Hillyer introduced a women's suffrage resolution in the Nevada Legislature. He also spoke out on women's rights. Hillyer's resolution passed, but like all proposed amendments to the state constitution, must pass one more time and then go out to a voter referendum. In 1870, Nevada held its first women's suffrage convention in Battle Mountain Station. In the late 1880s, women gained the right to run for school offices and the next year several women are elected to office. A few suffrage associations were formed in the mid 1890s, with a state group operating a few women's suffrage conventions. However, after 1899, most suffrage work slowed down or stopped altogether. In 1911, the Nevada Equal Franchise Society (NEFS) was formed. Attorney Felice Cohn wrote a women's suffrage resolution that was accepted and passed the Nevada Legislature. The resolution passed again in 1913 and will go out to the voters on November 3, 1914. Suffragists in the state organized heavily for the 1914 vote. Anne Henrietta Martin brought in suffragists and trade unionists from other states to help campaign. Martin and Mabel Vernon traveled around the state in a rented Ford Model T, covering thousands of miles. Suffragists in Nevada visited mining towns and even went down into mines to talk to voters. On November 3, the voters of Nevada voted overwhelmingly for women's suffrage. Even though Nevada women won the vote, they did not stop campaigning for women's suffrage. Nevada suffragists aided other states' campaigns and worked towards securing a federal suffrage amendment. On February 7, 1920, Nevada became the 28th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
The first women's suffrage effort in Florida was led by Ella C. Chamberlain in the early 1890s. Chamberlain began writing a women's suffrage news column, started a mixed-gender women's suffrage group and organized conventions in Florida.
While women's suffrage had an early start in Maine, dating back to the 1850s, it was a long, slow road to equal suffrage. Early suffragists brought speakers Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone to the state in the mid-1850s. Ann F. Jarvis Greely and other women in Ellsworth, Maine, created a women's rights lecture series in 1857. The first women's suffrage petition to the Maine Legislature was also sent that year. Working-class women began marching for women's suffrage in the 1860s. The Snow sisters created the first Maine women's suffrage organization, the Equal Rights Association of Rockland, in 1868. In the 1870s, a state suffrage organization, the Maine Women's Suffrage Association (MWSA), was formed. Many petitions for women's suffrage were sent to the state legislature. MWSA and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Maine worked closely together on suffrage issues. By the late 1880s the state legislature was considering several women's suffrage bills. While women's suffrage did not pass, during the 1890s many women's rights laws were secured. During the 1900s, suffragists in Maine continued to campaign and lecture on women's suffrage. Several suffrage organizations including a Maine chapter of the College Equal Suffrage League and the Men's Equal Rights League were formed in the 1910s. Florence Brooks Whitehouse started the Maine chapter of the National Woman's Party (NWP) in 1915. Suffragists and other clubwomen worked together on a large campaign for a 1917 voter referendum on women's suffrage. Despite the efforts of women around the state, women's suffrage failed. Going into the next few years, a women's suffrage referendum on voting in presidential elections was placed on the September 13, 1920 ballot. But before that vote, Maine ratified the Nineteenth Amendment on November 5, 1920. It was the nineteenth state to ratify. A few weeks after ratification, MWSA dissolved and formed the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Maine. White women first voted in Maine on September 13, 1920. Native Americans in Maine had to wait longer to vote. In 1924, they became citizens of the United States. However, Maine would not allow individuals living on Indian reservations to vote. It was not until the passage of a 1954 equal rights referendum that Native Americans gained the right to vote in Maine. In 1955 Lucy Nicolar Poolaw (Penobscot) was the first Native American living on a reservation in Maine to cast a vote.
Attempts to secure women's suffrage in Wisconsin began before the Civil War. In 1846, the first state constitutional convention delegates for Wisconsin discussed women's suffrage and the final document eventually included a number of progressive measures. This constitution was rejected and a more conservative document was eventually adopted. Wisconsin newspapers supported women's suffrage and Mathilde Franziska Anneke published the German language women's rights newspaper, Die Deutsche Frauen-Zeitung, in Milwaukee in 1852. Before the war, many women's rights petitions were circulated and there was tentative work in forming suffrage organizations. After the Civil War, the first women's suffrage conference held in Wisconsin took place in October 1867 in Janesville. That year, a women's suffrage amendment passed in the state legislature and waited to pass the second year. However, in 1868 the bill did not pass again. The Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association (WWSA) was reformed in 1869 and by the next year, there were several chapters arranged throughout Wisconsin. In 1884, suffragists won a brief victory when the state legislature passed a law to allow women to vote in elections on school-related issues. On the first voting day for women in 1887, the state Attorney General made it more difficult for women to vote and confusion about the law led to court challenges. Eventually, it was decided that without separate ballots, women could not be allowed to vote. Women would not vote again in Wisconsin until 1902 after separate school-related ballots were created. In the 1900s, state suffragists organized and continued to petition the Wisconsin legislature on women's suffrage. By 1911, two women's suffrage groups operated in the state: WWSA and the Political Equality League (PEL). A voter referendum went to the public in 1912. Both WWSA and PEL campaigned hard for women's equal suffrage rights. Despite the work put in by the suffragists, the measure failed to pass. PEL and WWSA merged again in 1913 and women continued their education work and lobbying. By 1915, the National Woman's Party also had chapters in Wisconsin and several prominent suffragists joined their ranks. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was also very present in Wisconsin suffrage efforts. Carrie Chapman Catt worked hard to keep Wisconsin suffragists on the path of supporting a federal woman's suffrage amendment. When the Nineteenth Amendment went out to the states for ratification, Wisconsin an hour behind Illinois on June 10, 1919. However, Wisconsin was the first to turn in the ratification paperwork to the State Department.
Women's suffrage began in North Dakota when it was still part of the Dakota Territory. During this time activists worked for women's suffrage, and in 1879, women gained the right to vote at school meetings. This was formalized in 1883 when the legislature passed a law where women would use separate ballots for their votes on school-related issues. When North Dakota was writing its state constitution, efforts were made to include equal suffrage for women, but women were only able to retain their right to vote for school issues. An abortive effort to provide equal suffrage happened in 1893, when the state legislature passed equal suffrage for women. However, the bill was "lost," never signed and eventually expunged from the record. Suffragists continued to hold conventions, raise awareness, and form organizations. The arrival of Sylvia Pankhurst in February 1912 stimulated the creation of more groups, including the statewide Votes for Women League. In 1914, there was a voter referendum on women's suffrage, but it did not pass. In 1917, limited suffrage bills for municipal and presidential suffrage were signed into law. On December 1, 1919, North Dakota became the twentieth state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment.
Ethel Edgerton Hurd (1845–1929) was a physician, a social reformer and a leader in the woman's suffrage movement in the U.S. state of Minnesota. She was a founder of the Political Equality Club of Minneapolis and the Scandinavian Woman Suffrage Association, and a member of the executive board of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association. For her activities, she was named to the national roll of honor of the League of Women Voters.
